WCRCC actions: What and why?

Guest opinion from Margaret Jensen - Precinct 4 (Weiser) Committeewoman

Editor’s note: The statements and opinions expressed in the following opinion piece is not necessarily those of the Weiser Signal American or any of its staff. 

 

Why are we attempting to remove Chairman Chandler from the Central Committee? 

 The Central Committee consists of 11 Precinct Committeepersons (PCs) who are elected by the voters in their precinct.  

 We serve at the pleasure of our constituents. Immediately following the Primary election in May, the newly elected PC people meet and elect their executive committee (EC) who serve at the pleasure of the committee. There are seven (EC) members, and unless they are a PC, they do not hold a voting position on the committee. 

 On March 12, 2024, Chairman Chandler attempted to gain voting privileges for the entire EC, which would change the dynamic of the vote to whichever direction he wanted. This maneuver would have taken away the vote from the 11 PCS who were ELECTED by you and placed those privileges in the hands of people who were not elected officials.  

 After lengthy discussion, ultimately the committee felt it needed further review, so the motion to send it to the Bylaws committee for a full review and recommendation was made. Chairman Chandler stated that he would not recognize the motion. He does not have authority to prevent a valid motion from being discussed. The motion passed and was sent to the Bylaws Committee.  

 Six days later, the Central Committee received an email from Chairman Chandler stating the following:

 “Dear County committee, This is the information that was sent to me that I read in the meeting last Tuesday night. It is the interpretation of the State rules chairman and our state parliamentarian. It is what we are going to do. Brent stated in his vague reply that for filling vacancies only PC’s vote, other than that all members of the committee vote on committee business. If you are not willing to follow the State rules, I would accept that as your unaffiliating yourself with the party, and accept that as your resignation.” 

 Since when does someone get kicked out of the Republican Party for wanting to do due diligence on an issue? Chairman Chandler did not have the authority to do that. 

 The candidate vetting sessions were designed to determine if a candidate aligned with the Republican values, not pick one candidate over another for support. 

 We were told to submit questions for review. None of the candidates received these questions ahead of time except Lisa Collini, the WCRCC secretary, also running for County Commissioner. Chairman Chandler knew that these questions had not been sent to everyone except Collini, therefore he condoned unethical behavior.

LD 9 candidate vetting meeting: 

 Chairman Chandler intentionally did not invite Scott Syme to the meeting. One would need to ask what his purpose was for not including Mr. Syme in that meeting but it was not in Chairman Chandler’s authority to make that decision for the entire District.   

 John Shirts was on a military assignment overseas when notified of the meeting. Shirts asked if the meeting could be rescheduled and was told no. One would need to ask Chairman Chandler why it was so important to have the meeting that night and not accommodate a candidate who is serving our country.   

 Chairman Chandler made that decision for the entire committee, not allowing these two gentlemen the opportunity to talk about their platform.  

 On April 4, we received an email from Chairman Chandler telling us we needed to decide on monetary support for the candidates selected. We have NEVER given money to candidates in the primary. Multiple people responded that they were not in favor of allocating any money, support, or endorsements until the full committee could discuss it at our next regularly scheduled meeting on April 9.  

 Chairman Chandler informed us that the next meeting would be the reorganization meeting on May 29, which means he canceled the last two most important meetings of the year. After that, communication stopped. Chairman Chandler does not have the authority to cancel scheduled meetings without cause.  

 We did not have an “agenda” to disrupt the committee, we wanted to conduct the business we were elected to do. At the time of this article, five of the PCs and none of the EC have responded to any requests for information, including the minutes from the March 12 meeting and the checking account ledger.  

 An appeal has been filed with the State Executive Committee for further review of the case.